macmall and ipod engraving

so i ordered a nano for my girlfriend's birthday (luckily i don't have to worry about her coming around this site....) and i got it through macmall, and got it engraved with a short, one line song quote.. it was about 20 bucks cheaper all told than the apple store would've been.

i knew that it might look a bit different (i've only seen a couple apple done engravings before), but figured it'd still be good

well

i received it in the mail yesterday. quickly opened up the unsealed nano box... lo and behold, the quote is not even freaking centered! it's left justified!

not only that, but the quality of the engraving itself is clearly lesser. now, that i would accept as a fact of life, but with the lack of centering, it just looks stupid. if it weren't a gift, i might suck it up (though probably not, it looks really bad), but since it is, and it was supposed to be a nice gift (i'm not rich enough to throw 250 bones out the window randomly) i'm pretty pissed

i emailed their sales address and complained, said i wanted a full refund because it was not at all how it should be, or at least a properly engraved replacement... haven't heard back

talked to a sales rep who basically said that because it's engraved, it's non-returnable. but, as i was on the phone with him i confirmed online that it shows a little display where you type in the text of the engraving and it shows you how it will look on the pod. it's CENTERED! it also looks like a much nicer font, so the whole thing in general is a big hoax.. but anyways, he transferred me to his supervisor who was away from his desk. i left a message and he was supposed to call me back before he left, but it's past 5 pm pst and he didn't call, so i'm guessing i'll have to annoy someone tomorrow. ****ing annoying

I wouldn't trust anyone else with my engravings besides Apple. Every person I know who has order an engraved iPod from Apple has been extremely happy. Keep bugging them. There is no reason for it to be off centered.

i have since talked to the supervisor (finally, took many calls and disconnects - ****** service). he said all engravings are centered, and that he's never seen one that's not. i told him how the dumbass i talked to first was so bold as to suggest that if you wanted it centered you had to calculate how many spaces to put in front of your text and he scoffed at the idea. he had me email him a picture of the back of the ipod to show how it looks so he can take up the issue with their engraver. that was monday, it's wednesday and no word back.

i'll call or email him tomorrow if i don't hear anything. at this point i am going to give it to my girlfriend sunday regardless, and then just hang onto it to exchange for the new one

either way, the font they use is not very good looking. i'll post a pic of it if anyone's interested... just doesn't look very professional, very tall and thin font.

hah yeah. live and learn. i'll let you know what ends up happening, but i have no intentions on keeping that ****** work. i don't even really want an exchange for a properly engraved one, as even centered that wouldn't look as good as the apple version. but oh well. i don't think she'll dump me over it.

Staff Member

Wow, that's a fugly font. And definitely not centered. Sorry you had such problems...

It seems like the centering issue will entitle you to return the unit. A refund would be great so that you can go to Apple for real engraving, but they'll probably just want send you another one that is centered.

Mac Mall really sucks. I bought a defective iBook G3 from them and (the screw that holds the battery in was stripped so I had to duct tape back of the book or risk it shutting off all the time) and they refused to do anything about it except give me a $10 off coupon an my next Mac Mall purchase (as if I would ever purchase anything from them again). They also were very sarcastic. After that wonderful experience I only purchase from Apple. What a refreshing change.

so, after nearly 2 months of trying to no avail to get the sales manager to give me a return authorization... i typed up a letter, printed pictures of the ipod i received (engraved improperly) and the ipod as it appears on the macmall site as you type in the text you want (centered of course). i also included the email the sales manager sent me (the only one). i demanded a full refund.

less than a week after it was received, my credit card has been refunded the cost! whoo!

so, just stick it to those pricks. suffice it to say, i will not be using macmall again.

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